The present invention relates to improvement in a rotationally operated dry shaver of the type comprising two or more shear plates which though normally disposed at a right angle to their cutter driving shaft are tiltable at diverse angles in shaving to conform to the skin contours. It also relates to such a shaver which includes a reciprocal toothed edge hair trimming clipper, and which includes means and provisions for reversing the cutter rotation when desired.
Various rotary dry shavers have been introduced which comprise two or more apertured shear plates which are tiltable and which include a bladed rotary cutting member cooperative with the shear plates and coactively tiltable therewith, but in such previously known structures the shear plates (usually retained in a frame) are made tiltable by primarily supporting them on the cutting blades, the latter being tiltably supported on one end of an axially spring biased driving shaft under a very light pressure. However, because the apertured shearing portion of the plates must be extremely thin to effect a close shave they are consequently very fragile. Therefore, were they fully supported only on the cutter blades a relatively heavy pressure in shaving or handling could cause the blades to break through the fragile thin shell of the plate shearing portions. For this reason, when primary support on spring biased blades constitutes the structure by which the shear plates are made tiltable, a secondary and solid support must be provided on which the under portion of the shear plates come to rest after they have been depressed a preset distance together with the spring biased blades, and since the secondary support must uniformly limit the plate depression at all points they are now resting with the faces in a flat plane and no longer tiltable. This condition results even with pressure on only one radial side of the plate faces. Thus, when so depressed the shear plate faces can no longer adjust to the skin contours.
Also, heretofore rotary dry shavers with two or more tiltable shear plates have been made, as above described, with the apertures of the shear plates formed as slits which naturally present two opposite cutting edges, but no advantage has been taken of this to lengthen the cutter wear life by employing a two-edged rotary cutting member and means for reversing the cutter rotation when desired, as hereinbefore recited.
A prime object of the present invention is to provide a rotary dry shaver with tiltable nonrotating cutting elements comprising apertured shear plates, the cutting elements supported on a spherically radiused surface in such fashion that all shaving pressure is sustained on the nonrotating cutting element and none on the blades of a rotary cutting member cooperating with the inner surface of the shear plates. The plates remaining freely tiltable under all shaving pressures and conditions.
Another object is to provide in such a shaver a cutting element retaining frame having apertures through which a portion of the cutting elements project and wherein a portion of the outer surface of the latter is correspondingly spherically radiused to be fittingly and tiltably retained by and in the frame apertures.
Still another object is to provide such a shaver with means and provisions for reversing the rotation of the rotary cutting member when desired.
A further object is to provide such a shaver with a housing comprising a hair clipping receiving chamber beneath the cutting element retaining frame, chamber clean-out apertures through the housing side walls, a pair of side plates hinged to the housing to open and close the wall apertures, and cooperating engaging means on a portion of the frame and the side plates to engage together when the latter are closed to positively secure the frame in place.
A still further object is to provide such a shaver with a component housing wherein a toothed edge reciprocal hair trimming clipper is embodied, the toothed edge of which may be projected from or retracted into the housing, the clipper being operably connected to a driving element when it is projected and disconnected when retracted.